UPDATE: UW student’s Richland family devastated by her death

Katy Straalsund would wake up well before the sun rose and college classes started to head to her job as a barista at Starbucks.

It was all part of her well-thought-out plan to help put herself through the University of Washington, to graduate with a degree in speech and hearing sciences and, eventually, to work with people with neurological communication disorders.

The 22-year-old Richland native was well on her way to accomplishing her dreams. She was to graduate with honors this summer and was accepted into a program to teach English in Spain.

“She is very driven, kind of a perfectionist,” Eric Straalsund said Thursday. “She is very, very hardworking. She studied very hard.”

Never miss a local story.

Sign up today for unlimited digital access to our website, apps, the digital newspaper and more.

This fall, we are planning a family memorial to take some of Katy’s remains to spread across the mountains in Spain, a place where she was drawn to both physically and spiritually.

GoFundMe site statement

However, the young woman with an affinity for nature and healthy cooking will never teach in Barcelona or get to hike Pacific Northwest mountain trails again.

She died Tuesday at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, two days after police say she was brutally attacked by her boyfriend inside her apartment near the college campus. She had severe head injuries and had been strangled.

Casey S. Henderson, 21, also a UW student from Richland, has been charged with first-degree murder. He is being held at the King County jail on $2 million bail.

Prosecutors claim he is a serious flight risk considering his parents live in Korea and he was apparently dating another woman who lives out of the country.

Henderson told police he became paranoid after taking LSD and repeatedly punched and kicked Katy on Sunday afternoon, according to court documents in the case. Seattle police officers broke into her apartment as he was attacking her.

Henderson told detectives the couple bought the powerful hallucinogen the day before and and took the drug together, court document said. He said they stayed up through the night and on the afternoon of the attack he started to believe Katy was “plotting against him.”

The sensationalized story of a couple’s lives destroyed by drug abuse is inaccurate. The notion drugs were a factor in this act was provided by Katy’s murderer after he was caught in the act of a brutal assault.

Eric Straalsund, victim’s father

The Straalsund family released a statement Thursday calling the murder a senseless act of domestic violence and questioning what apparent role LSD had in the attack.

Police have not found evidence so far that the couple took LSD, officials said.

“The sensationalized story of a couple’s lives destroyed by drug abuse is inaccurate,” Eric Straalsund said in a family statement released Thursday. “The notion drugs were a factor in this act was provided by Katy’s murderer after he was caught in the act of a brutal assault.”

Related stories from Tri-City Herald

“This is a tragic and senseless act of domestic violence, for which there is no excuse,” said the statement.

The Straalsund family is devastated by Katy’s death, but working to keep a positive attitude, much like the one she had throughout her entire life, said her father.

Family members are planning to connect with organizations to bring awareness to domestic violence and get a scholarship at the UW in her honor.

This is really about domestic violence, domestic abuse. It needs to be stopped.

Eric Straalsund, victim’s father

They’re asking anyone who wants to honor her to make a donation in her name to the Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

There was never any indication of abuse in the couple’s relationship, which family members interpreted from Katy as somewhat casual and nothing that appeared to be long term, Eric Straalsund said. Katy’s parents had never met Henderson.

“This is really about domestic violence, domestic abuse,” he said. “It needs to be stopped.”

Katy was a graduate of River’s Edge High School in Richland and Columbia Basin College. She is survived by her parents, Eric and Tracie, three siblings and extended family. The family plans a private memorial ceremony.

We are all happy that part of her will live on and she will save lives. She is changing lives right now.

Eric Straalsund, victim’s father

Eric Straalsund expects fundraisers in Katy’s honor to be held in Seattle and the Tri-Cities in the near future.

And they are hoping to raise money through a GoFundMe account to help make one of Katy’s dreams a reality by taking some of her ashes to spread in the mountains in Spain. Any additional money would be donated to the state domestic violence coalition or the scholarship.

By Thursday evening, the fund already had raised nearly half of its $10,000 goal.

Katy’s body was being prepared Thursday for surgery to donate her organs, something she always wanted, Eric Straalsund said.

“We are all happy that part of her will live on and she will save lives,” he said. “She is changing lives right now.”